In Scotland at Rosyth, a flag-raising ceremony was held for the Romanian Naval Forces aboard the minehunter M 271 Captain Constantin Dumitrescu, the second of two British Sandown class minehunters sold to Romania in September 2023.
The ship, formerly HMS Pembroke, served in the Royal Navy until 2023 and is now the first minehunter of the Romanian Navy, part of the 146th Mine Squadron. The purchase, costing 150 million Euros net, was made through the UK’s DESA agency, responsible for the sale of decommissioned military equipment.
Another minehunter, the Sub-Lieutenant Ion Ghiculescu, formerly HMS Blyth, has already reached the Black Sea at Costanza in December 2023, while the Captain Constantin Dumitrescu is expected to join by the end of the year.
DESA and Babcock International handled the refurbishment of the minehunting ships at Rosyth for delivery to the new owner, with the Royal Navy providing individual training through International Defence Training and collective training with Fleet Operational Sea Training.
Sandown class vessels are British single role minehunters, a total of 12 of which served between 1988 and 2001, and three were exported to Saudi Arabia as the Al Jawf type.
#### Features of MCM Sandown
The Sandown class minehunter has a displacement of 600 tons, a length of 52.5 meters, a width of 10.9 meters, a draft of 2.3 meters, and is manned by a crew of 40 sailors.
At one time Spain obtained a license for this project and built six similar MCM units named Segura.
The UK has sold three Sandown class vessels to Estonia and transferred two more to Ukraine as military aid.
Source and photo credit @Romanian Naval Forces
